Flying Home

Since my family and friends are probably the only people subscribed to this blog, perhaps this is a suitable avenue for me to update my new adventures. :)

After a happy Chinese New Year holiday at my hometown Singapore, it’s time to fly home… to where my hubby and gynae wait for me.

By the way I have this little web application that shows little notes about how far the foetus comes along has the days pass.

It’s like an automatic count down. Cute ya! Right now it says “Our baby is ¼ inch, heart begins to beat. Eyes, ears, mouth and limb buds visible. Our baby is 5 weeks & 6 days along. 239 days to go!” So cute!

Flying is tiring
Ok, back to the topic of flying home. Wow, I didn’t know actually how physically taxing flying is on the body. It seems as if you are resting on the plane for 24 hrs (Yes, it was a 24 hr flight including transit), but it actually drains your energy. I had plenty of rest, plenty of water and juices, plenty of leg exercise this time. Didn’t watch as much inflight entertainment as I used to.

Observations of Children
Seated beside me was a blonde German mother with her two children, a beautiful 2 year old blonde girl, and a 5 year old blonde boy. They boarded during my flight transit at Frankfurt, and spent 12.5 hours with me to New York. I didn’t interact much with them, just smiled and asked their names. I was more interested in observing them. Well the two year old had to be buckled in with her mother, and after half an hour she started protesting. The air stewardess arrived just in time with “Bubbles” the powerpuff girl soft toy which distracted her. The boy was amazingly well behaved. Just seated, and buckled in his seat waiting for take off. The two year old cries and screams occasionally throughout the flight, but most of the time she remains in her area, playing with the seat buckle (figuring out how to snap open and shut the seat buckle took up most of her time) or sleeping. The five year old boy was pretty much quiet and well behaved throughout the flight. What a good big brother! Eats, sleeps (kicks me when he sleeps because there’s not enough room for him to lie stretched out…lol), watches ‘Beauty and the Beast’ on the LCD, talks in a calm and moderate voice, is able to respond to the air stewardess when she asks if he wants orange juice. So from my observations, 5 year olds can travel on long distance flights pretty well.

Many seats away from me, there’s an Asian toddler somewhere that gets restless more than the 2 year old German toddler seated near me. His/her wails woke me up from my sleep a number of times. Lol

For the sake of my little one

If you’ve travelled to America since 9/11, you would know that airport security has become stricter. And in recent months, they have further tightened security with these X-ray machines. I am supposed to walk through the scanners twice. But for the sake of my little one, I asked the officer “May I not be scanned? I’m pregnant”.

Both times in Singapore and at Frankfurt, the airport staff gave me no problems, and was very polite to me. It was “Step this way, Ma’am” and a physical pat down. They took more precaution and much more time checking me, making sure I didn’t carry anything threatening, but I didn’t mind as they were polite and kind.

There isn’t any solid evidence that these airport scanners would harm fetuses. But for the sake of my little ball of cells with a tiny heartbeat, I shall just protect him. It relaxes my heart and mind to do so too.

At JFK Airport, a female staff I approached was very warm and helpful when I told her that I was pregnant and needed help to lift my luggage off the conveyer belt. She lifted two 25kg bags from the belt, and wheeled them past customs, all the way out to my husband. I was pleasantly surprised as I only expected her to lift them off the belt for me, but she went an extra mile. Thanks JFK-lady. <3>